I'm not dead

I did go and have a baby in April though so, yeah, there's that that's been keeping me very busy.  But also I've sort of stopped blogging because I can't seem to get the time to sit down and write every day.  I do have things to say about projects that I'm working on though (can't give up the sewing!) so I've moved most of my crafty-self over to Threadbias.  I like that I can keep all my individual project info in nice tidy "packages".  If you'd still like to see what I'm up to come on over and take a peek and say hi!

Baby Scrap Quilt

My favorite part about this quilt is that I didn't buy any fabric for it. I didn't buy batting or backing or binding or thread. I actually used all things that were already in my sewing room. I have a huge bucket of scraps and it was dreamy to knock it down ever so slightly. Plus with all the odd sizes pieces available to me, I didn't really cut or alter them and just tried to wing how everything went together (I didn't use a formal pattern) which made it very liberating and fun to sew up. It makes me want to make another one and explore some other ideas I have for free-form piecing.
My only criticism is that it should've had larger white areas. I just didn't have that many white scraps. The next one I'll probably have to buy some solid fabric and not worry about it being scrappy. Of course I have a few other quilts to finish first before I can run off and start another one just for fun.

The Front


The Back (the aqua is flannel for softness and comfort)


Detail of one of the blocks

Auction Quilt

In order to get volunteer hours at my daughters school and donate to the school auction, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and make a quilt to be auctioned off. I picked a quilt I thought I could make quickly. After having kept track of everything I discovered I'm either a really slow quilter or this hobby is WAY more time consuming then I thought! All told it took me 26 hours to put this one together. In my defense I will say I took a step that I don't normally take. It took up three hours of that total: knotting and hand sewing in the quilting thread tails so the stitching won't come out. Normally I'm lazy and just back tack, figuring if the stitching pops I'll just fix it since all the quilts I make are for family or friends. What I learned was, it actually looks a lot nicer done the "right" way. lol... I do like hand work so I'll probably continue this "extra" step for future quilts even if it takes more time. For the this quilt I also hand bound the back of the binding which always takes a while but went faster then I thought it would, 3 hours to cut, sew and stitch the binding to the quilt. Not bad! I love that step anyway. ^^

The front


The back


A bit of detail on the back


Pattern (and kit): Positively Perfect Nap Quilt 54" x 66"
Fabric: Hometown by Sweetwater for Moda Fabrics. Backing fabric is flannel with scrap pieces from the front.
Hours to complete: 26

Cut to the quick

Can I say what an awesome Christmas present this has been? I've now cut out my third quilt (and several other smaller projects) with the same blade and have just taken the few minutes to sharpen it before each project. I think I might have to officially endorse this product... lol. It's not quite as sharp as a new blade but it works just fine. This latest quilt, I wasn't able to cut through more then four layers of high quality quilting cotton, whereas with the last quilt I could cut through 6 - 8 layers of batiks. So I'm not sure if it's any less sharp or if it's due to the difference in fabric. Still, I most certainly don't need to replace the blade yet.

And yes here's a bit of the most recent quilting fabric to meet my blade. It's the quilt for the school auction. I initially was going to make a bed size quilt but was afraid I'd run out of time (due before Feb. 25th!) so I went with a nap size instead. I should be able to knock it out. Also might make a matching pillow but not sure I have enough of the cream color.... And yes, I am being totally *lazy* about the whole thing and I bought a kit (second one ever) just because I think the design and fabrics could appeal to a wide variety of people and I'm not really sure who will be bidding on it.

Composition Notebook Cover

I based this cover on these two patterns, Journal Cover Tutorial by Bloom and another Journal Cover Tutorial by Bloom for Moda Bakeshop that's a little more complete - it kinda fills in the blanks where the first one is lacking. I actually customized mine to make it fit a standard (US) composition notebook. Having never made anything like this before and trying to take care of a small person in-between it took me a couple of hours. I think I could probably make another one in half that time or easily less now. It was super fun to make and I could easily see how these could be addictive. I want to make a dozen more!

Buttercup Bag

My first finished project of the year. I made this sweet little bag for my friend's Birthday.

T-shirt Quilt for DH

I also finished a quilt for my DH out of some of his old T-shirts which he received for Christmas this year. It runs the gamut from his various motorcycles and corvettes, to hobbies that include gaming and racing. It's so HIM. He also made a number of the T-shirts I used in this quilt. He seemed to really love it and that's the best feeling of all. His mom helped me piece the top together when she was out visiting this past summer. It was fun to work on a project with her.
I don't know that I'll ever make a t-shirt quilt again though. The fabric was stretchy and even the flannel wasn't very stable, so making it a challenge to quilt without getting pin tucks in the back. There are two little tucks which annoy me but not enough to have picked them out and requilted those sections. Heh. It'll be fine. It's just a couch blankie for him and I'm sure he'll take it when it goes on his overnight motorcycle racing weekends with the boys.

Flannel Quilt for Dad

Happy Holidays to All! Hope they were joyous and fun filled. (Mine were - whoop!) Looking forward to New Year's too. Sorry, I can't believe that the last time I posted here was October! It's been a very busy couple of months. I'll try to be better in 2012. Promise!

So I did actually manage to *finish* a quilt! This one was for my Dad. He's not in the best of health (bad Rheumatoid arthritis) and because of that often has to just sit and do nothing. The perfect excuse to be a couch potato. Anyway how can you sit around and watch TV all day without something warm to snuggle up into? Simply, you can't. So I made him a quilt. (He did have an old ratty pink one, which I find hilarious since he's got this crazy aversion to pink otherwise.) So the dog inherited the old one and now he's got this! (Which I gave him for Christmas and he loved BTW)




The whole thing is made of flannel, front and back. Nice and warm! but hum... Not sure I'll do that again. It was kinda a PITA to work as everything sticks to everything else. ie. the fabrics don't slide easily to line things up and it tended to fray a lot more then quilting cotton. It wasn't the worst fabric I've ever worked with but it just wasn't as easy a nice unbrushed cotton. ;^)

Table Runner

Finished a table runner for my mom... just in time for fall. Good thing too since I started it way back in July. Heh. Hoping to see her soon to gift. Maybe this weekend?

Mug Rug

I finished a sweet little mug rug I made this month for an on-line swap. I'm not up to big projects yet but it was nice to revisit my sewing room for a bit.


I left the fringe of his scarf unattached for a bit of fun too.

The World of Amish Quilts

Normally I don't post book reviews here but since this one was quilting related I thought I'd pop it up here.


The World of Amish Quilts by Kenneth Pellman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed both the plethora of colorful images that were packed into this book along with the snippets of Amish culture, history and lifestyle. The latter explaining many of the choices of quilt design and color choice. In the modern quilt movement that seems to be happening these days it is inspiring to look to a group of quilts that seem to already embody much of "todays aesthetic" even if they were made over 100 years ago. Nothing is new! They are beautiful, artistic and inspiring.... now I want to go quilt.



View all my reviews

Fabric Friday - An Ocean of Fabric

I feel kinda bad that all I've been posting here lately is long ago fabric purchases. The reality is I haven't been sewing much the past few months since I found out I was pregnant and have been experiencing some severe morning sickness. However I'm very slowly starting to feel better and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things in the next month or so. I've set myself some goals and larger projects to finish up by the holidays so here's hoping I can get them done! I also have a few basic tutorials I've promised people I'd make and I'd like to get to those sometime in the next few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled! In the meantime, yes there's more fabric I can share.

My poor sister's quilt I started over a year ago and just can't seem to get done is languishing in my sewing room. Instead of torturing myself looking at all the quilting left to do on it I thought I'd just make her another whole top (yes that's easier!) and let her take it to a long armer to have the quilting done since my poor little machine struggles with shoving a queen size quilt through the neck. So Kiki's quilt - take 2!

Finished!

Yes, it's been a while since I actually finished anything crafty. But hey! Lookie here. I finally got something done. No doubt it's a small something, but a something none the less. I started this in the spring but I just couldn’t get myself to sew all those little straight lines once I’d started. Well, today was the day I tackled it without excuse. It’s larger then a mug rug, though I suppose it could be used for that. I originally intended it to be used kind of like a doily to put a vase of flowers on to keep any water off the nicer pieces of furniture in our home.

Fabric Friday: Christmas in July

So yeah, back in July, while out at the Sister's Quilt Show, I was thinking about Christmas. I've always wanted to make a Christmas quilt but could never really come up with a pattern that spoke to me. However because of all the beautiful quilts there I was struck with inspiration and now have a "master plan" in mind! So of course I now need to start collecting Christmas themed fabric. Here are the first three FQ's. Not very exciting yet but hey - it's a start! I don't think I'll get it done by this Christmas but maybe the next one... that's goal anyway. Not only will there be much machine sewing for this quilt but also a lot of handwork too that I just don't think I can finish up in a few short months.

Fabric Friday: Someday, a Fall Quilt

I actually do have a project in mind for this fabric.... I haven't started it yet as I'd like to have some templates made for the pieces that need to be cut out. I think it'll go much smoother with templates since the pattern is somewhat complex and involves Y-Seams, curves and a lots of odd angles. It should be a stunner when and if I can get it done. Hopefully with Snooky in school most days now I'll be able to devote the time to this project that it'll require. Originally the pattern suggests using solids but I adore pattern and just can't quite bring myself to work with solids. So I tried to get as tone-on-tone as I could. If I'm successful with this quilt top I might try to enter it into the Sister's Quilt show next year. That's my plan... oh, to have it quilt by check. ;^)

Fabric Friday: This One's for the Birds

The above fabric was a little bit of everything that caught my eye while shop hopping on my now long ago trip to Sisters at the beginning of July. I had bought some of the golden yellow fabric previously, used it in all sorts of things feeling it to be the "perfect" yellow, and ran out. So when I found this little FQ of course it had to be mine! I've also been resisting buying Fandango for ages now... I'm not sure why. I love that line and finally gave in allowing myself a few FQ's which I have no idea what I'll do with. The other FQ's were sweet and also hopped in my basket, again without much rhyme or reason. I hope I can find a use for them. The half yard cuts (rolled up on the right) I sort of thought I could use to make a small quilt lap quilt for Snooky with or maybe a dress but again, while I love the line, I don't have a project in mind.

Below was a mug from The Stitchin' Post in Sisters. It shows a close up section from this years annual poster for the Sister's Outdoor Quilt Show. I just love the sweet little bird and the bright fun colors!

Fabric Friday: Gettin' Dressed

Another fabric purchase from my Sister's quilt retreat in July. I've been making my daughter little slip-over-the-head dresses for summer. I saw the sweet little brown and pink fabric with the birds on it and immediately thought of Snooky's dresses. She'd look adorable. I paired it with some white/pink and solid pink I had in my stash, which I thought would make a cute lining and pocket fabric. My only thought is, I might have to get a new pattern and make this in the next size up, since she's already outgrowing the one's I made this summer. (Which means I hope I have enough fabric!) That way if I do get around to making it after the weather cools off, she'll at least be able to wear it next summer too.

Fabric Friday: A Love of Aprons but Not Dirty Dishes

I really do love aprons and couldn't help buy by some fabric and a pattern while on my trip out to Sister's in July.  Charissa found the adorable 30's retro fabric on super-sale at a quilt shop in Bend.  There were only a few yards left on the bolt, and to make it even cheaper we split the difference and "killed" the bolt.  I found the pattern at The Stichin' Post in Sisters.  It's reversible and adorable.  I got the fabric on the left at the SP too.  I'm hoping to make these up sometime in the fall, just in time for all the holiday baking and cooking that goes on around here.

Sister's Outdoor Quilt Show: Pt. 4, The Quilts

I think I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. I had a great time (even if I wasn't feeling so great that day) there were so many amazing quilts, it was just a joy and an inspiration to be there.

Fabric Friday: It's so Mom

During my trip out to Sisters I *might* have spent a little bit of $$ on fabric.  One of the first fabric stores we stopped at I saw this fabric line, <i>Collections for a Cause - Hope by Howard Marcus for Moda</i>.  I can't remember ever seeing a fabric line that screamed my Mother quite so much.  I thought I'd pick up at least a charm pack to make her something small like a table runner with a little extra to finish up the project.  I tried to wing the pattern design in my head and so far managed to buy just the right amount of everything.  I might even have enough left over to make her a tote bag with the scraps.

I'm enjoying working with fabric that's a bit out of my norm. Also I showed the fabric to my Mom and predictably, she LURVED it.